-The RPG Happens in 30 EE, 30 Years after The Great World War-The Great World War started as a three-way war between 3 factions of super nations: Northern Alliance (USA/Canada/Japan/SKorea/Russia) and South American Union (South and central America) versus European League (Western Europe) versus The New Assyrian Empire (Middle East and Africa)-War started when The New Assyrian Empire massed forces and relentlessly attacked South American Union, which has the only Space Elevator-European League took advantage and wanted to cripple The New Assyrian Empire, but first supernation to fall.-China and India forges a non-aggression pact with New Assyrian Empire-Northern Alliance allied with South American Union and gave a serious challenge but ultimately loses when China attacked and took over Russia in Siberia-China and India forges alliances (allegiance) to New Assyrian Empire; Empire assimilates them-The New Assyrian Empire changes its name to The World Empire, declares world government-The World Empire changes the date to 1 EE, Era of the Empire-The World Empire looks to conquer the space colonies and the moon next. Space Colony Liberty leads the defense from space.-Rebel groups during their 30 years of reign try to create chaos but The World Empire beats them soundly and exterminates them-One rebel group is unlike others, planned from 1 EE to make their move in 30 EE, when the Empire military begins to amass to space and thin the forces on Earth.-Will originally take place in California and focus on local conflicts. If time and interest allows it, it will expand to a global, and then, solar conflict

Factions:

The World Empire

-The world government, a monarchy/aristocratic mixed government-Largest military in the solar system, consists of Leo, Aries etc... (Wing units) but assimilates other units from other nations-Ruled by a young and enigmatic king-Based in The Middle East; main capital is a glitzy skyscraper-laden skyline, becomes the culture capital-Shanghai becomes the undisputed commerce and trade capital of the world-Lower-level officials have grown increasingly corrupt with high taxes and lower quality of life among world citizens while officials get richer-Employs mercenaries to get rid of political enemies without getting their hands dirty

Firebrand Revolution

-Planned by Samuel Firebrand, leader of the movement from 1 E to 29 EE (Deceased)-Samuel, an ex-Northern Alliance espionage specialist, vows to use more unconventional tactics (theft, espionage, kidnapping, intimidation) to attack the increasingly corrupt World Empire-Recruits multi-skilled personnel to their ranks with MS piloting at the top of their priority, as well as highly skilled miners and metallurgists-Based in an abandoned mine shaft; appeals to miners sick of Empire officials taking a large slice of their mined materials for their own personal wealth-Also employs mercenaries-Makes mining-oriented grunt units on the outside; refurbishes war units on the inside-Considerably small; less than 100 personnel, around 10 war-ready mobile suits (more or less depending on entry and participation level)-Profit gains from mining

Vegas Underground

-"Black Market" neutral side-untouched by the Empire because it becomes the top mercenary hotspot in the West-Known to have been dealing illegally acquired mobile suit weapons, has a weapons/development lab-Utilized mainly by The Empire; Firebrand looks to grab some local talents there-Player characters not allowed to align with the Black Market

Mobile Suits/Character rules:

These are just guidelines, but it will be a mixed-universe selection of mecha, particularly for Firebrand's Revolution. The World Empire will have mostly AC units and AEU units (Gundam 00). Since The World Empire has taken over the world, they can use other MSes as well (but has to be a good reason, i.e. ace pilot)

-Custom units allowed, Original (fanmade) units not allowed-Special powers are allowed, as long as they are within Gundam bounds, and are relatively weak (as in, no perfect coordinators, no talking to dead spirits etc). Newtypes, Coordinators and enhanced soldiers. Innovators/Innovades are not allowed at this point.

Setting rules:

-Since this is mixed universe, the importance of particle jamming such as Neutron Jammers and Minovsky interference and, maybe in the future, GN interference is diminished to allow some gameplay. Units with real stealth features (i.e. Mirage Colloid, Deathscythe etc) can keep their stealth, if the RPG gets far for mid-season upgrades-Players may play on 2 main sides: World Empire vs Firebrand Revolution.-Players may start out as neutrally-aligned mercenaries, could align with World Empire or Firebrand Revolution with contract-Those not aligned with any major faction may be subject o free-for-all open world combat (so it's best to pick a side if you don't want to be ganked)-While mecha combat is the focus (and mecha in general), there will be foot action involving espionage and sabotage in some chapters

Personal notes:

-Willing to take responsibility as a GM including more backstory, settings detail and moving the plot-May need volunteers to help play important characters

Stalin is power hungry having taken the Baltic, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia for their oil.

Mao has almost all of Asia and the South Pacific in his grasp, the Japanese people paying dearly for Nanking.

And what we knew as WWII is now on it's ear.

The newly christened Third German Reich has now allied with the United States and disintegrating British Commonwealth The Soviet Union has once again turned on it's allies and forged new ones with a blossoming Peoples Republic of Asia.

In a drastically different WWII, you are a crew member of what some refer to as 'Iron Joes’ or ‘Iron Ivans’.

These turboshaft powered “Power Armors” are the next step in mechanized arms and armor, rising over 1.5 to 2 stories tall hefting large guns and machine cannons over the wastes of Europe and the Far East. Pilots of these machines are drafted from the Tank and Infantry divisions on either side.

These two or three man machines have proven themselves more mobile than their tank predecessors and rival aircraft as the 'it weapon' that many enlistees wish to use to 'fight the other side'.

The crème de la crème of both sides (Allied OSS/MI5 vs Communist KGB/MSS) have been molded respectively into a 'Delta Force/Navy Seal like task force. Assault teams each side hopes could tip the war in their favor using the best and brightest their countries can offer.

In a war still mired in ideologies.. whose will reign supreme?

The Axis and Allies have now been totally reorganized into the following 'loose' alliances:

The Western Free Allied Forces- The United States of America- British Commonwealth- West France- Democratic Republic of Spain- The Republic of Italy- The Greater Third German Reich

The armor would be around the height of a small house, 20 feet tall at the most for the 3 man heavier armor, around 10-15 feet for escort/fast assault 2 man recon armor. Operation of them would be similar to ground pounder GMs of 08th MS team, but using turbine powerplants and be reminiscent of tank warfare.

Nationalists from both sides wishing to 'escape the war and help their families' are ENCOURAGED! Japanese tankers driving British and US tanks in 'Bushido' like brigades looking to free Japan; Polish drivers wishing to crush Germany for what they did in 1939..

This game is a sort of Band of Brothers or The Pacific with giant mecha.

And here’s a bit of backstory.

It was early 1942.

With the death of a schizophrenic Adolf Hitler at the hands of a band of officers following the failure of the alliance with Japan, news traveled quickly through the multiple intelligence services all over the world. Italy, already taking a beating from bearing the brunt of the North African Campaign and supporting German and Vichy forces against Allied British, Canadian, and American armor was the first to collapse in a surrender agreement after a disillusioned army had turned on Mussiloni who too fell into a state of neurotic paranoia.

With the collapse of Italy, The Soviets met in talks with British and American delegates as to how to go about wrapping up the war with the Axis seemingly falling to pieces before them.

However, unbeknownst to the Russian commanders, Nazi Germany had in the few short months after Hitler's death, denounced the "Jewish" issue and handed over documents and practitioners of this atrocity to the Western Allies. Why? The Soviets had already taken up the 'Jewish Problem" flag under Josef Stalin as an even greater 'great purge'. Their goal was to smash a weakened Germany and annex them and their French and Italian neighbors before the Western Allies could muster a response.

With Germany begrudgingly accepting interim terms, they folded their forces in with those of the Western Allies in secret; an end result of France and Poland almost going rogue feeling betrayed at the actions of the ‘Imperialist Westerners’

With the political world now in as much a mire as the real world, the war itself ground to another crawl as if it were 1915 all over again. This gave Russia a chance to push for more power in the east, threatening Japan and its attempted annex of China while the lines in the West continued to stall.

Japan, at this time, actually had maintained American diplomatic relations when Emperor Hirohito disavowed and executed his military commanders after Nanking and Korea became a public affair within the British Empire and America. What resulted was a country that under the stipulation of remaining neutral would receive the support they wanted from the US.

However, the Soviets used this as a perfect opportunity to strike, supporting Mao Zedong in the success of a Communist Chinese superstate as it annexed a majority of SE Asia. Japan and the Western Allies cried foul at this, Chang Kai Shek’s forces all but massacred by Chinese and Soviet forces as they advanced south and east across the Middle east and Southern Asia. They both then set their eyes on Japan and Australia..

On December 25th 1944, The Soviet Union and the new Peoples Republic of Indochina (PRIC), declared open war on the British Commonwealth, the German remnants, and America calling them 'traitors' to the cause of ‘freedom for the oppressed peoples of the world’. On the front lines a new weapon soon appeared within the Soviet ranks: A bipedal 'tank' loosely translated as "Power Armor". These hefty, bipedal and heavily armored weapons could be built just as quickly as the proposed T-34 Tank. Stalin supported these weapons seeing them as an even more awesome weapon for his people to stand behind; a battalion of Iron Giants to crush the indulgent, imperialistic, and Capitalist west.

And with an assault in January 1945 via air-dropped armor over Japan, the main islands were soon taken within a matter of months. It was brutal; no quarter was spared. Those left of Japan's people and government fled to Australia in an attempt to regroup and form a counteroffensive with the help of Australia.

It never came. Within 2 months Communist forces were already landing in Northern Australia.

It didn’t take long for the Communists to spread on the European front as well. With Communist supplied Free French and Polish SFR forces, Power Armored attacks began to spring up in the summer of 1945. Germany was hit hard by these attacks, and the Western Allies having to quickly adapt to the style being used by the Soviet forces caused the lines to fall back toward Berlin itself.

America, Britain, and the Third German Reich needed something to counter the new "Iron Giant" weapon that had been deployed by the Communists, taking only months to flatten Australia (which by November was now firmly in Russian and PRIC hands)

Their own Power armor would soon debut in Vietnam in December 1945; much to the shock of the Communists, as it was believed the Americans had been concentrating on Nuclear weapons. In truth, the US now had both. And a Nuclear strike on the Sino-Russian Saigon stronghold in January 1946 would soon spool up the war into something even bloodier than had been seen in human history.

It was truly East versus West . It was now a war of ideologies, with two legged metal men beating each other senseless across the world.

I've gotten a few questions on the Mecha in my RPG. I felt that I should probably clarify some things as far as the mecha go (or at least attempt to.. ).

TLDR form for those lazy arses (Wedge..)

- 2-3 man crews- Pilot and Commander or Pilot, Gunner, Commander- Pilot drives- Gunner shoots and also can take partial control during some firing situations (Norden WWII bombsight)- Commander serves similar function to Tank Commander- Larger suits are around (10-12m or Patlaborish scale) Cute rocketship thing for people-scaffolding scale- Mecha operation will need to take fuel consumption into account (like TFTF - judgement/honesty system)- TFTF style judgement/honesty system will be used extensively (no D20/stat heavy here)- Mecha = Fuel Hogs - Fuel Hog Dynamic = Reactor to Beam Weapon Dynamic (Some engines are more efficient)- Multi-fuel is designed as a last ditch thing for 'storytelling'- Will usually result in trashing an engine (putting mech out of action)- People will need 1 or 2 NPC/PC characters to act under their PC when piloting a Mecha- Done so "So and so doesn't wait on so and so to move the foot or fire the gun"- Allows for some Tanker-style dynamics in combat

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My wordy explantion.. taken from a PM:

Pretty much think of how 1940s cars compare to today's cars.

Apply that to mecha.

It's going to take more than some fancy computer to help augment a single pilot; similar to how computers augment today's cars, tanks, armored vehicles, etc.

In many cases it's going to take a pilot, commander, and gunner in most cases.

Pilot: Obviously this guy does the piloting, which is really driving in this case. Operating these mecha are actually quite similar to driving a tank or older car, transmission, clutch, etc. They also can, at times, fire the fixed guns in the chest of these mechs ala WWII tanks. Probably one of the more fun positions in a 2 or 3 man crew since they get to toss the mech around the battlefield like a car, dodge, piss off their crewmembers with boneheaded moves..

Gunner: This guy loads, sights, and fires the main guns on the mecha. The pilot has to work at times under the Gunner and Mech Commander like a WWII bombadier often would take temporary command of a Bomber during a bombing run to assure proper placement of the bombs. He also relies on the Mech commander to help coordinate the pilot and him as a second pair of eyes to make sure 'they hit something'.

Mech Commander: Not all mecha have a 3 man crew, but those that due make use of a 'mech commander' who acts as a coordinator for both the pilot and gunner so as to make sure both 'are shooting and running in the right direction' so to speak. They also man the small arms mounted on the front or in the rear of the mech depending on the design.

So essentially if you look up tank crews and tank warfare; take the tank out and put a 2-3 story tall bipedal mech in it's place.

Other mecha in the game are of the 2 man crew variety, these are usually recon or light armor mechs that rely on a pilot and gunner but aren't as heavily armored or armed as a 3 man mech.

As for the size and power, the mecha all utilize turboshaft engines, which are basically jet engines that, rather than produce thrust out the tail pipe, take that thrust and turn it into shaft power via the turbine blades. These are the same engines used in helicopters and in today's large tanks as well. These powerplants will also play into the game in a way since while the power is there, it sucks gas worse than a large truck.

So like beam weapons on gundam reactors, engine (fuel) efficiency can play into how well a mech can perform on the ground.

The size of the mecha are pretty dependent too on contemporary 1940s Tank design. The mecha will reach the height of 2 stories (or around 35-40 US feet/11-12 Meters). Some lighter mecha will be shorter and more nimble.. but be weaker. Larger mecha may withstand hits of some larger caliber weaponry, however they'll sacrifice that survivability for speed and mobility.

Depending on which type of mech you want to drive, the player will need to design a tank team of PCs that they will play in the game. They don't necessarily don't have to share the limelight with the main PC, but I think it'd be better to do it this way than have 2 or 3 players wait on each other in a mecha battle just to fire a gun or move the mecha.

_________________TRANS AM!Yes, it's a V8.Yes, it was a Trans Am before there was "TRANS AM."Yes, it's mine.